Newsonomics: How Grows The Millennial Market, Charlotte Agenda and Spirited Media?
Two local-news companies have focused on the large millennial populations in urban centers. Now, with several years under their collective belts, we can report some intriguing numbers.
By far, their number one source of revenue: sponsorship.
“Advertising with Facebook and Google is effective and they’ll continue to gobble up the majority of local advertising dollars,” Ted Williams, who started up Charlotte Agenda three years ago, told me this week. “We don’t sell against them — that’s dumb. We specifically target clients that understand digital brand advertising and want to reach the next generation of Charlotte. This means turning away potential revenue from clients only focused on lead generation or maximizing low-cost impressions.”
Williams says Charlotte Agenda pulled in $856,000 in sponsorship revenue in 2017, generating 65 percent of its $1.3 million in revenue. That’s up about 55 percent over 2016, says Williams, who says the Agenda, with “6 FTEs, 2 PTEs, and about 5 core freelancers,” is profitable.
First published at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab on March 9, 2018 as part of “Newsonomics: Tronc “Crashes”, DFM Owner Sued, News Guard Funded, Advance Tiptoes Into Paywalls — and The Big Lesson From Hypergrowing The Athletic”
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Meanwhile, 21-person-strong Spirited Media — Jim Brady’s three-city (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Denver) operation — takes in 75 percent of its revenue from a combination of sponsorship and events. Unlike Charlotte Agenda — which focuses on site, social, and newsletter sponsorship — Spirited’s sites still focus on events. (The span of Lab coverage of Spirited here.)
Brady acknowledges a rough patch in 2017, which included layoffs, but says the last four months have restarted the revenue engines, as his sites have better learned how to pull in sponsors. Further, the sites now actively pursue membership — and have connected a newsletter strategy to that conversion well. After revving up that initiative, Brady says, “we’re at just under 600 after five weeks in Denver, three in Pittsburgh, and two in Philly.” Spirited is also beginning to license its self-developed platform, which it calls Bridge, and consult for other startups.
Brady spoke candidly to last week’s Megaconference in San Diego, sharing the travails of a four-year-old startup. One slide sums up a lot of learning, below.
Down the Y-axis are Spirited’s revenue categories, all in some stage of development. On the X-axis, he’s arranged four factors that he’s learned drive — or don’t drive — revenue lines. There’s a lot in this one chart for rising entrepreneurs and those who follow them.
Takeaway: Small can be beautiful. These lively sites, staffed by young journalists, do attract readers, and increasingly loyal ones. Using newsletters and Instagram, they can find audiences that are under-served by existing local media.
